


Delicates

by cymyguy



Series: Stick [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: College, Dorms, F/M, Genderswap, Living Together, Moving In Together, Unplanned Pregnancy, college athletes, ultrasounds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-27 03:33:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17758985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cymyguy/pseuds/cymyguy
Summary: Living with Kageyama is officially awesome, even better than rooming with his teammates.For about a week.





	Delicates

Hinata is, miraculously, on time for their move-in slot. He piled a couple friends into the car with his stuff, and as Tanaka and Aone start grabbing boxes, Hinata runs down the sidewalk to meet her.

“Hey, roomie!”

She sizes him up.

“Call me that again and I’ll flush while you’re in the shower.”

“Wha—Fine then,” he pouts.

“Go check in at the table by the door. They’ll give you keys.”

“I know what to do, Kageyama, I’ve been at this school for three years.”

“You don’t look it.”

“Hey! That—That was just a low blow! It’s not necessary to point that out!”

Tanaka cackles somewhere behind him, but Hinata doesn’t turn, because he’s just noticed Kageyama’s parents, carrying totes from her car. He waves, but his smile is nervous. This display of some humility is probably best, considering how persistently her parents have been trying to persuade her from moving in with a young man, since they found out she was going to. Kageyama is annoyed but not surprised at their disapproval.

And if that wasn’t irritating enough, she’s had teammates teasing her about “growing up” and such a “big step” in her relationship, even though Tobio has told them she and Hinata don’t have a relationship of any kind, other than this weird parenting rivalry apparently. She’s feeling almost as spotlighted in the locker room this week as she did back in October, when the team was trying to get her to tell them who the father was.

“I’ve resorted to under the table methods, since she won’t tell,” their captain had said. “Her own teammates. Who _does_ know, just your parents?”

“Coach Ukai knows,” said Mako. “I asked him and he said he wasn’t going to say who.”

A few shrieks of her name followed this.

“When did you tell Coach?”

She shrugged. “I don’t remember.”

“You felt more confident telling him than us? I’m hurt.”

“What did he say when you told him?”

“He claims he didn’t freak out,” said Hana.

“Yeah yeah, but about who the father is, did you tell him because he asked?”

“He said ‘just tell me it wasn’t someone from the football team,’” Tobio supplied, and the whole room giggled.

“But then you told him? That’s totally not fair, he wouldn’t even care about it, we’re the ones who want to know! Come on Tobio!”

“It _is_ someone from this school, right?”

“Not some high school ex? Awww, was it like a high school crush that finally got up the guts to make a move on you?”

Others fawned on the idea, but Tobio’s eyebrow twitched with wonder at them.

“It has to be someone who was at that party in August. I’m right, right?”

“Um—”

“Tobio I can’t believe this!” Kaori burst out. “You of all people! You told us you’re more into girls now, was that just to lead us on?”

“No,” she said stoutly.

“So it was like, crazy unexpected? Did you actually get _drunk_ at that party?”

“Not that drunk.” She blushed then, thinking if she had said the opposite they might cut her some slack.

“Pleeeease Tobio, you can tell us, it’s us!”

“We’re the collective godmother!”

“You’re our goody two-shoes, we deserve an explanation.”

“I thought you would all know already,” she said, stalling. “I thought he’d tell his team, then everyone would know.”

“So he’s on a team!”

“But not the football team.”

“I think it was a given that she’d go for an athlete.”

“We don’t even know her anymore, how can you say that?”

“Who was it Tobio?” the captain said over everyone. “Please tell us.”

While they were genuinely quiet and respectfully patient, she decided she should be glad she got to tell them. It was her information to share, and nobody had ruined that yet.

“It was—um…It was with—Hinata,” she murmured to her shoes.

“Hinata…?”

They had to have thought of the first Hinata they knew, which would be the correct one, but they were set on her telling them outright.

“Does Hinata have a first name?”

“Hinata who?”

“From what team?”

“Shoyo,” Tobio said.

They hadn’t heard properly, and pleaded to her again.

“Hinata Shoyo, from the other volleyball team.”

A choir of screams.

“Okay I _knew_ you left with him!” Yukie shouted. “No one would believe me when I said I saw you! Um, sorry Tobio.”

She shrugged.

“He’s cute! And he seems like a really nice guy.”

“He’s _totally_ nice, my friend has a class with him—”

“But you guys are like opposites, he’s so wild and—”

“Damn girl, you know how to get what you want!”

“You’re like the only one the guys’ team has an innocent image of,” said Mai.

“Well _that’s_ about to change!”

“Wait, wait, there’s one more super important question. Since you did answer the first one we won’t force you to answer this one, if you really don’t want to,” Kaori said. “But I’m curious as hell, just saying. Was he any good?”

Tobio had expected something humiliating, but that was by far the easiest thing to answer about that night.

“It’s just—I mean, he’s not built much like other guys on that team,” Kaori said.

“Or like college athletes in general,” said Hana. “But he’s got a lot of energy.”

A few of them giggled.

“I thought he was pretty good,” Tobio said, shrugging. “I got as much out of it as he did.”

They screamed out their laughter, and Tobio smiled a little through a blush. She ended the discussion with:

“No one can tell him I said that, it’ll go straight to the idiot’s head.”

 

In present day, said idiot is standing right in front of her, in the living space between their two bedrooms, and Kageyama has to wonder if there’s not something she resents about all this.

“I’ve never lived with a girl before,” Hinata says.

She scowls and squints at the same time.

“You have a sister.”

“Well yeah, I’m used to _little_ girls, but not actual women.”

“Uh—I—I’m—What are you saying, dumbass, shut up.”

“Now I’ll know all your secrets.” He chuckles darkly. “Like how you look in the morning, and how many pairs of shoes you actually have.”

“I don’t have that many shoes.”

“Well it seems like girls never wear the same pair of shoes more than once, ever.”

Kageyama observes him, blatantly unimpressed. “I’m sure you’ll learn some things.”

“Hey, let’s sit on the couch and ask each other questions to get to know each other better.”

Hinata has already launched himself onto the couch.

“What kind of questions?” she wants to know.

“All kinds. Come here, and tell me your favorite movie.”

“I don’t like questions like that, they’re stupid.”

“Well I’m asking about things I want to know! You can ask whatever kind of questions you want when it’s your turn.”

She grumbles, but joins him on the couch, and even gets a little fluttery feeling in her gut, though she can excuse that on account of the baby so that it doesn’t worry her too much. She notices then that Hinata’s eyes are lingering on her bump. She crosses her arms over it and gives him a hard look.

“I’ll start with a different question since you hated that one so much,” Hinata says. “Even though it was super easy. What’s your favorite color?”

“Blue.”

“Ooo, what kind of blue?”

“Why does that matter?”

“Well it’s not specific enough, there’s like a thousand kinds of blue!”

“Regular blue, like…a crayon.”

“Oh, okay. Now you ask me something.” He grins.

“How long have you had orange hair?”

He scoffs. “You call my question stupid and then you go and ask something like that? Obviously since I was a baby!”

“Well it could’ve been more recent.”

“How could it have been more recent?”

“I’m asking another one since you yelled at me instead of answering.”

“What? I didn’t.”

“What’s your favorite movie?”

“What? Hey!”

She grins, and watches a shiver zip up his body and sit him straight. She goes back to scowling.

“My favorite movie is _Gone to Shindai Forest_.”

“Never heard of it.”

He gapes. Then he adopts a serene smile and places his hands together in front of him.

“You will be blessed by living with me, Kageyama.”

“Shut up.”

“My turn. How old were you when you started playing volleyball?”

“Second year primary.”

“Woah, seriously? I was in middle school.”

“I didn’t ask that.”

“Well, now you don’t have to. Your turn.”

“Have you always been wing spiker?”

“No, in high school I was middle blocker for the first two years.”

She raises a brow. “Seriously?”

“Yeah! I’d go against guys a foot taller than me, all the time!”

She folds her arms tighter. “A foot?”

“Well, on the average—”

They sprinkle their bickering with an occasional official question, until 10:30, when Kageyama has the urge to look at her phone. She starts right out of her seat.

“What is it, what happened?” Hinata says.

“Uh—Nothing. It’s later than I thought. When do you usually go to bed?”

“I sleep early and wake earlier!”

“Well I don’t care, as long as you’re quiet while I’m trying to sleep. If you’re not—”

She looks over her shoulder, and he swears her eyes have caught fire.

“—you won’t be here for long.”

He gapes. She walks off to her room.

“Okay, so, first rule of the house! Got it!”

She shuts the door on him, and starts to settle into her new space, treading paths on the carpet and putting the little things just the way she wants.

Maybe this won’t be so bad. Maybe it will be easy.

Living alone is nice, for sure, but she’s always thought there is something nice, almost comforting, about having to be quiet in the morning as she gets ready, because there is someone else here to consider.

 

On their first whole day together, she uses tape to post her class and practice schedules to the inside of the front door. When Hinata asks why, she tells him he needs to do the same.

“So we know when the other person is going to be here, and what time they’re supposed to get back at night.”

“Why would we need to know that?” Hinata says. “A—Are you like a control freak?”

“What?” she barks.

“That’s super weird and, like, stalkerish, why do you want to know where I am all the time?”

“I don’t care where you are or what you’re doing, but I want to know when you’ll be gone so I can study here and—other stuff.”

“Why can’t you study with me here?”

She scoffs, and he squawks.

“When we have a kid you have to do it,” Kageyama says, “Because we have to coordinate with watching her, and you have to be dependable. I know it will take a long time to make it a habit, since you’re so thoughtless, so you better start practicing now.”

“Hey! I’m totally dependable, I’ll always be here to watch them!”

“It’s not _possible_ for either of us to be here all the time. Just print out your schedules every Sunday, it’s not that hard.”

“I don’t even have a printer, I have to go to the library or the student center to print stuff, so that’s actually super annoying.”

“I have a printer in my room, I’ll let you use it for that.”

He rolls his eyes. “Wow, generous.”

Kageyama glares back. She has good reasons for keeping tabs on him; she’s tried with each of her former roommates to establish something like this, so that she doesn’t have to worry when someone’s out past eleven and left her no explanation. She _hates_ that. She hates having to run through endless lists of horrors in her head, preparing the statement to police that will make them believe her innocence in the disappearance of her roommate, or even what she’ll say when she’s recruited to the crime documentary about their life. She hates having to text them, and wonder whether it comes off as bothersome, creepy, or fake, when all she means to get out of it is reassurance. She hates that no one will agree to do this simple thing, to outline their schedule for her, and think to shoot her a quick message if there’s a major change of plans. It’s true that Hinata is not a young woman and doesn’t need as much worrying over, but it goes the other way too; she’d like for him to be able to notify her parents as soon as possible if she goes missing.

She thinks maybe it was her parents that instilled their safety warnings a little too deeply.

“Fine, don’t do it, whatever,” she says. “But you at least better tell me if you’re not going to come back at night, so I can sleep in peace.”

“Wha? Wait—Could it be that Kageyama is— _concerned_ about someone? You’ll be worried if I don’t come home?” He snickers into his hand. “Is your motherly instinct already kicking in?”

She grabs a fistful of his hair and tugs, and he jumps out of his seat so she can’t pull higher.

“Ow!”

“See if I give a damn about you,” she says. “But you better memorize my schedules like your life depends on it, so you can call the police if I get kidnapped.”

“You—You wouldn’t do that! I mean, that won’t happen! It couldn’t—It wouldn’t, right?” He’s pale. “You’ll be careful, right? Don’t walk alone! I’ll buy you a pepper spray!”

“Shut up, I already have one. Now are you taking this seriously?”

“If you ever need someone to walk across campus with you, just let me know,” he says. “Or any of my teammates, they’ll do it too. Okay?”

She arranges her face very carefully before looking at him.

“Okay.”

 

No matter what Kageyama throws at him in the way of rules and demands, Hinata refuses to believe there won’t be any perks to living with an attractive athlete, and he is definitely right to have faith in the idea. All his friends are jealous of him, for starters. He sees the girl that’s pregnant with his kid like eight times as much as he could have hoped if things stayed the same as last semester. Instead of chasing her across the quad or wading through the cafeteria crowd to her or having her teammates help him ambush her outside her classrooms, he sees her in the morning before they both leave for team workouts, and in the afternoon when he drops his backpack off before practice and she’s doing schoolwork on the couch, and in the evenings if he comes there instead of going out with friends and if she’s not at the library.

Also, Kageyama has apparently picked up some, um, _habits_ while living alone for a semester, which include walking to and from the shower in just a towel, fixing her hair before she puts her shirt on, and wearing a certain nightgown in the evenings, that he assumes she must believe is dark enough in the back, but which actually shows off the pattern of whatever underwear she happens to be wearing. The nightgown is his personal favorite, because it says “soul of a setter” on it and Hinata is an admirer/envier of every cool volleyball-themed thing. But he has an ongoing moral dilemma about it too, because Kageyama should be free to wear what she wants in her own home, but it’s also proper roommate etiquette, probably, for Hinata to inform her of the benefits he’s accruing.

Living with Kageyama is officially awesome, even better than rooming with his teammates.

For about a week.

 

Kageyama almost breaks his nose one Tuesday, with the force of her door opening. Hinata is just reaching for the handle. He turns his face in time for the corner to crush his cheek.

“OW!”

She looks around the door at him.

“Kageyama you could’ve killed me!” He holds his cheek. “You would’ve broke my nose if I didn’t have such good reflexes.”

“If you had that good of reflexes you would’ve gotten out of the way altogether.”

“Uh! You owe me an apology.”

“You never gave me one for spilling on my textbook.”

“Well why did you leave your textbook out anyway?”

“Why were you standing behind the door like a dumbass?”

“I was _trying_ to leave! And this is a little more serious than a textbook, this is my face!”

“Why didn’t you tell me you’d spilled on it, you tried to cover it up!” she snaps.

“Because I knew you’d be mad!”

She pushes past him.

“Get an icepack from your coach on the way to class.”

“I don’t have time for that, you made me late.”

“Go then, idiot.”

“Yeah, I’ll just take my fractured cheekbone with me!”

Kageyama doesn’t have a normal sense of social danger; since she has no capacity for staying on people’s good side, she tells him immediately, bluntly, if she doesn’t like something. She hands over everything she considers to be his faults or mistakes, and then brushes off her hands, expecting them to be fixed and that’s that. It’s probably a good communication practice in theory, Hinata thinks, but in reality it’s like getting sucker punched or kicked in the shin every time he opens his own front door.

The thing is, Kageyama has never had a roommate who would dare inform her that her faults are just as many, and just as bad. She believes she’s very considerate. Nobody’s ever given her a complaint. But Hinata, she very quickly realizes, seems to feel that they are on equal ground when it comes to flaws, and is not a bit afraid of telling her so.

Hinata hates that she crams regular-size milk cartons into the mini fridge, even though it’s technically her mini fridge. He hates the automatic air freshener she keeps in the hall, at the perfect level to spray him in the face. And:

“Why is your hair everywhere? It’s all over the place. I can’t walk around with bare feet because it gets caught between my toes and it’s disgusting!”

“I can’t help that it falls out, I have no control over that!”

“It _falls out_? Why? If your hair’s falling out already, you need to stop being so stressed and relax sometimes, geez.”

“That’s not why!” she hollers. “ _Your_ hair’s everywhere too, it’s normal.”

“But mine’s short, it’s not all—tangley! I hate when it gets caught on me, it makes me feel like throwing up!”

One day he goes to brush his teeth, and somehow her hair is on his toothbrush. He doesn’t see it, only feels it once it’s in his mouth, and this time he really does throw up. She’s not going to argue that that isn’t disgusting, but hearing about it for a week successfully rids her of all sympathy for him.

Kageyama grew up in a quiet house, and she likes, no, expects quiet. She does not expect after-dinner gaming tournaments in the living room on weekends, or for Hinata to laugh at dumb videos on his phone and never use headphones. Neither does she enjoy walking in on him pooping, because he’s out of it in the mornings and doesn’t turn on the light or shut the door.

Speaking of the bathroom, Kageyama’s hair is clogging up the shower drain. Hinata’s always soaking the toilet rug instead of the actual bathmat. She knows he spilled half of her cleanser because she only bought the bottle a week ago. He’s sick of her raising the shower head; it always gets him right in the face when he first turns it on.

 

Once he sends her a message about not having started his project that’s due tomorrow, which means that he’ll be at the library until late, which means he’ll miss laundry hours and won’t be able to wash the things he needs for their out-of-town games this weekend.

_Will u pleeeeeeeeeez put in the wash for me???_

_How is it my responsibility that you’re a dumbass?_ she sends back.

_Everybody makes mistakes kageyama! Pleez just one time_

_Fine. You’re doing mine next time._

_Thank uuuuuuu!!!! 😀_

The first time he has to put her laundry in with his is an ordeal of sorts. Since there’s no one around he is free to blush like mad as he picks up her underwear, pair after pair, and tosses them into the machine. Blue ones, purple ones, even _pink_ , and some of them have lace and some are especially silky and one is not even underwear at all, it’s—a thong that he whips into the machine without another glance. He promptly shoves in the last few armfuls, refusing to go through the shock again. As he does this it occurs to him just how many pairs of dirty underwear she has in this one load of laundry; how many can she wear in a day? Are all girls like that? He takes the list of her instructions out of his pocket, but to be honest he gave up on that before he even started. The machines do all the work, why is she trying to make it so complicated?

Tobio decides that he is not very good at laundry. He can manage the lights and darks part, but she has lots of delicates, and favorites, and things he shouldn’t dry but does. She decides that they should avoid sharing the chore as much as possible and stick to doing their own. He agrees, because according to him she has so much dirty stuff that it’s totally unfair when he gives her his little bit to do. This makes her mad, and she decides that they are going to split duties after all. But Hinata can’t follow either verbal or written instructions, which is why when she steps into the building and sees him in the laundry room, he is holding a pile of string that was once her underwear.

“What did you do, dumbass?”

“Your stupid frilly underwear came all undone and tangled up everything! Look at this!”

He lifts a handful of clothes out, all bound together with blue string.

“This isn’t the _underwear’s_ fault,” she says, snatching the ball of blue. “I told you to put it on the normal cycle when you wash them, you can’t do the heavy duty with things like this.”

“But normal doesn’t get everything clean, my shirts still smell like sweat on normal! Then I have to put in more yen and do it again.”

“I told you how to do it right, so just _do_ it.”

“Fine,” he shouts, slamming the basket on top of the dryer. “Then you owe me like 800 yen!”

He stalks past. Kageyama chucks everything into the dryer, slams the door shut, and hits the button. As she is going back to their place, Hinata comes barging out with his keys. He leaves the building. She finishes the laundry herself, untangling all the string then sorting hers out and dumping his items onto his bed.

A few mornings later Kageyama goes to pull on her favorite gray joggers. She shakes her leg, and looks down, only to find that they are about three inches too short. She stares, eyes going blurry in her rage.

Hinata went into the bathroom just after she left it. She storms out and thumps on the door. He opens it a crack.

“Going to be sick?”

She shoves the door wide.

“You shrunk my pants. They’re my favorite ones, I told you that they were, and I told you never to dry them with the machine but you did it anyway because you never listen to a word I say, Hinata.”

He groans. “It’s so early, Kageyama, can we talk about it—”

“You don’t listen!” she shouts. “My pants are too short and my underwear are destroyed and my back hurts—”

“If your back hurts you should be in bed, not yelling at me. Stop working yourself up, it’s bad for you!”

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

He scoffs. “That’s all you ever do to me, the only time you talk to me is to order me around.”

“Well don’t worry—” she pushes her pants down, balls them and throws them at his chest— “I won’t talk to you anymore.”

 

Their silence lasts for all of an afternoon, while they’re not together. When Hinata gets back at nine, she hears the door shut, then her name loudly.

“Kageyama?”

She scowls, gets up and crosses her room, opens the door and sticks her head out. Hinata is standing in the living area.

“We need to talk,” he says, equaling her glare.

“About _what_.”

“Just—come out here.”

She stomps up into his space and looks down, knowing it will piss him off. He raises his chin, eyes glinting hard at her. Then he turns and moves to the couch. He sits on one end and points at the other, still pouting with his face. She sits down and glares at the carpet.

“We’re fighting too much,” he says, “And my dad says we need to talk about it, because it won’t magically get better on its own.”

“What does your dad have to do with this?”

“He’s divorced,” Hinata says. “He _knows_ things.”

Kageyama purses her lips and looks at her socks. After a moment, she raises her eyes back to him.

“You should stop being inconsiderate.”

“ _You_ should change your attitude! Don’t assume that you’re the only one trying to be considerate!” he says.

“So I’m not allowed to be honest?”

“Of course you should be honest, I’ll be honest too. I don’t _mind_ that you tell me you don’t like something, it’s a lot better that way, except you never just tell me you don’t like something, you accuse me. And I’m sick of that!”

He jumps up and she copies him, ready to open her mouth, but he blurts out:

“I’m sick of it being my fault and sick of you telling me I do things on purpose when I don’t. I’ll always do my best to be easy to live with, okay, but if you’re going to be this high and mighty all the time I won’t be able to take it! You’re not the only one who’s making sacrifices and trying!”

Oh. There it is, again.

It hurts more to hear it. None of her other roommates had the nerve to say it to her face. That nobody can stay with her.

“So you’re going to leave.”

“What?”

She sits down, crossing her arms and leaning them on her knees.

“You won’t take it anymore.”

The quietness of her voice is baffling him. He shakes his head, and sits next to her.

“Of course I’m not leaving!” he yelps. “We’ve barely even tried yet. I don’t want to give up that easily, do you?”

“I don’t…know what to do. I don’t—Um—I don’t have the best history with roommates,” she mumbles.

“Well if I said I couldn’t understand why, I’d be lying.”

She glares, but her eyes are already soft again in a second, and she looks back down.

“Well I don’t care about your other roommates,” Hinata says. “I’m not just an average roommate. We’re both doing this because we’re going to have the baby. Right?”

She looks at him and nods.

“So it’s not about us, it doesn’t matter if we’re too alike or too different. I don’t intend to leave just because you’re difficult.”

Her eyes narrow. “Did you want to rephrase that?”

“I don’t intend to leave just because you’re impossible. Gah!”

He stands up to dodge her hand.

“The only way I’m giving up is if you think you’d be better off without me. If you could prove that, that would be the only reason for me to leave.”

Kageyama has new light in her eyes. She stands back up.

“It’s too late to think about how I can’t stand you,” she says.

“Hey!”

“As far as I’m concerned I’m stuck with you, for as long as you want to be here. Quitting isn’t an option for me either.”

“That’s right,” Hinata practically shouts. “If I know one thing about you, Kageyama, it’s that you’re not a quitter!”

“That’s the only thing you know about me, you dumbass? Haven’t you paid attention to anything I’ve told you?”

“I said _if_ , I said if there’s only one thing, but it’s just an expression, I know lots of things. Bakayama.”

“What did you call me?”

He tries to escape into his room, but she catches and pins him just outside it, sitting on his back as she pulls his arm up painfully toward his head.

“What did you call me just now?”

“Kageyama! I called you Kageyama! K-A-G-E-Y-A-M-A!”

She releases his arm and puts a hand on the wall as she heaves herself back to her feet. He sits up as she walks away.

“Kageyama, are you a sadist?”

She looks blankly, and he snorts into his hand. She goes back to her room.

 

Hinata comes with her to the next appointment, and her parents do not, to their frustration. But she scheduled it that way on purpose. They are finding out (Kageyama says “confirming” in the car and Hinata loses his shit all over again) the baby’s gender. While they are alone in the room they renew their argument, but the moment the specialist enters, they snap to attention, Hinata leaping to his feet and Tobio sitting up fast on the bed. The specialist makes the preparations for the scan, and Hinata shrinks back a little, a crinkle in the bridge of his nose and a frown that he looks like he’s employing to keep the more prominent, less manly feelings off his face. When the image comes up on the monitor, however, he darts right up next to them, and both parents squint hard at the screen.

The man smiles from one to the other.

“It’s a girl.”

Kageyama pumps her fist, but Hinata doesn’t pay attention, instead he leans toward the specialist and says low “Are you sure?”

The man laughs, then raises his finger to the screen and shows as he explains. When Hinata finally looks at her, she smirks. And Hinata, for all his indignation earlier, only smiles.

The baby girl has a distinctly human form now, and Tobio suddenly gets a restless feeling and wants to leave the bed. She doesn’t want be here in a gown in a room with two men, getting her stomach rubbed with some contraption, seeing right through her skin and muscle to where it is living.

“How about I leave you three alone for a few minutes, hm?”

His saying “three” makes her more uncomfortable. The specialist leaves the room quietly, and Tobio makes an immediate attempt to distract herself.

“Told you, idiot, you should’ve believed me.”

“Just because you were right doesn’t mean it wasn’t a guess!” Hinata says. “You had a fifty percent chance either way, it’s not like it was a prediction.”

“I _knew_ it was a girl.”

“Shouldn’t we be calling it ‘she’ now, not it?”

She abruptly closes her mouth, strange feelings squirming through her again.

“And it’s not like I didn’t want a girl,” he says. “I never said that. It’s just better to be open-minded about these things.”

“If you didn’t care if it was a girl why did you even argue with me?” she demands.

“Because, for the reason I just said!”

“You don’t want to admit you were hoping for a boy.”

“I was not, I wasn’t hoping either way! Our girls’ volleyball team is awesome, and our boys’ volleyball team is awesome, so what’s the big deal? You’re the one who was so selfishly insisting! I’m just as happy as you that it’s a girl.”

“Yeah _right_ —”

“I’m happy because you’re happy,” he declares, “And because I know having a daughter will be awesome.”

Having…Having a daughter.

Kageyama will be able to inform people that she has a daughter. She’ll check the box on forms saying that she has one. When she goes to class, and to volleyball, and is on TV, she’ll be a person with a daughter, the whole time.

And, so will Hinata. She can tell he is thinking along these lines as well, when he looks at her with something unlike a smile wobbling on his lips, but his eyes bright as ever, brighter. Her daughter and Hinata’s daughter will be the same person. They’re pushing forward together now, even though they have only ever done one, very brief thing together before this sudden huge undertaking.

The specialist comes back in, and they each get a picture to take with them. As they cross the parking lot Hinata says:

“Hey, I have to call Natsu and my dad!”

This reminds Tobio to check her phone. Her mother texted twenty-five minutes ago, probably at exactly the minute they had been finding out.

_Is it a girl?_

She replies “ _Yes_ ” and sends a picture of the picture.

And now she feels bad all over again, for caring about all the small inconveniences Hinata has brought into her life. How could she act like those things matter? When this, this is so much bigger and better, scarier, much more vital to her happiness. She looks at the picture.

“I suppose you already have names picked out, since you thought you knew,” Hinata says, sulking his shoulders a little.

She blinks. “No.”

“Oh! So maybe I can name her!”

“Pf.”

“Hey!”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Stay tuned, on Valentine's there shall be smut! (and more dumbassery, of course)


End file.
